Lines & Letters

Award-Winning Newsletter of NEO STC

STC recently hosted a free members-only webinar called The Introvert in the Workplace: Becoming a Leader and Influencer by Ben Woelk. If you are familiar with Woelk’s work, you know that he presented at Summit on the topic, published an article in the May/June 2018 Intercom journal with the same name, hosts a Slack group … Continue reading…

WordPress for Journalists surprised me in how in-depth it covers its topics. Provided is not only information about how to complete tasks in WordPress but also how to use this content management system to produce journalism today. Author LJ Filotrani has an impressive background and is most qualified to tackle her topics. Not only is she … Continue reading…

We hope you had a wonderful summer! We’ve been busy getting ready for a new NEO STC term year. It is with great pride, that we welcome the following officers for the July 1, 2018 – June 30, 2019 term: Bob Young, President Jason Vensel, Immediate Past President Tricia Spayer, Vice President Kathleen Gaughan, Treasurer Lisa Scovern, Secretary Visit … Continue reading…

It’s my pleasure as president to welcome you to a new NEO STC year that promises to be unique and exciting. Your officers and committee chairs met throughout the summer to plan some educational and fun activities. Our mission is twofold: improve communication so members can enjoy the full benefit of their membership and to … Continue reading…

Did you hear? NEO STC has a member-exclusive group on Slack which serves as a real-time communication tool that allows you to chat directly with officers and members. Further, Tricia Spayer, NEO STC Vice President, has set up integrations for the NEO STC Google calendar of events and the STC Notebook to keep you in … Continue reading…

Not only is Jackie Damrau the Book Review Editor for Technical Communication (STC’s scholarly journal), she is also a senior business systems analyst, scrum master, and certified BPMN professional. Jackie works on the Technical Communication Book Reviews Section as it offers a reviewer’s viewpoint about a book in the technical communication field as described at https://www.stc.org/techcomm/submit-book-review/. Reviewers are STC … Continue reading…

Kelly Smith has been a gold member of STC since 2015. As a gold member, she has a membership to all the STC SIGs. She is currently most active in the Instructional Design & Learning (IDL) SIG and has recently become their newsletter editor, which is how I met her. She is also a member of the Southeast Michigan chapter and … Continue reading…

After attending 10 Summits in a row, I had to skip a couple years. But I returned this year, and what a year to return! Of course, it was great seeing STC friends whom I hadn’t seen in a while, especially the CAC! First of all, the location (Orlando, Florida) was fantastic. Former NEO STC … Continue reading…

The Society for Technical Communication has long recognized the importance of the hard work and commitment of its members. The Distinguished Chapter Service Award (DCSA) is designed to recognize exemplary effort, energy, and dedication to a chapter and its activities. The program was inaugurated in 1988, with the first awards given in 1989. The DCSA … Continue reading…

As a child, I remember spending countless hours playing with LEGO building blocks. The different colors and shapes were intriguing, as were my blueprints. Well, obviously there were no blueprints, but I happily imagined the details for constructing ferocious dinosaurs and futuristic skyscrapers. It didn’t matter if the results fell short. I knew that mom … Continue reading…

Do you prepare presentations in PowerPoint or other software? Need to find graphics? Maybe you are looking for some audience interaction or remote pointing tools to help you with your presentations. To see what’s new in presentation technology, check out this article from Toastmaster magazine from March 2018. The author highlights the latest in presentation … Continue reading…

“WordPress runs 30% of the web and has never been more approachable than it is today.” That statement comes from promotional material concerning the Cleveland Digital Publishing User’s Group meeting held June 28. Featured at that meeting that did not disappoint was a panel of local WordPress experts. See https://cdpug.org/ for more information about the group sponsoring the … Continue reading…

Technology in School Classrooms: How It Can Transform Teaching and Student Learning Today James G. Cibulka and Bruce S. Cooper, eds. 2017. Rowman & Littlefield. 172 pages. 978-1-4758-3104-7. USD$30.00 (softcover). Cibulka and Cooper are educators and editors for this collection of works about the use of technology in school classrooms and the general topic of … Continue reading…

Happy May! I hope your month is off to a great start. I know mine has been (because I’ve had plenty of baby snuggles)! My friend had a baby on April 3rd and I’m a very proud “aunt.” Please excuse me while I shamelessly spam you with a baby photo! Do you also have news? Please … Continue reading…

As a first-time attendee to the Spectrum Conference, I was curious and excited to make the four-hour road trip to Rochester, NY. Hosted by the STC Rochester chapter, this conference—and its host members—are of the highest caliber. The event is well-organized with outstanding learning and networking opportunities. I strongly encourage NEO STC members to attend … Continue reading…

At the end of March 2018, Monte and I were privileged to attend the 59th (yeah, that’s right 59th) annual STC Rochester Spectrum Conference. This was my fourth time attending; the third as a speaker. This conference seems to get better each time. At least for me. My enthusiasm for tech comm and STC were … Continue reading…

Greetings from the Academic Relations team! We often have opportunities during the year for our NEO STC members to volunteer by speaking about their experiences in the profession to students. (Last month’s president’s column talked about our visit to John Carroll.) It is a way to educate northeast Ohio students about what they can do … Continue reading…

“Laughter was the highlight of the NEOSTC game night.” So said Angie Dianetti about the March 15 NEO STC game night social activity. She goes on to say, “While waiting for others to arrive, Ginny Haas, Tricia Spayer, and I started with a friendly game of Pentago, each winning once. The game requires you to … Continue reading…

Jennifer Yaros, Chief Creativity Officer of BrainSpark, brought energy, creativity, and teamwork to the April NEO STC meeting at Rockwell Automation. Drawing from her work developing BrainSpark, a new offering from Radcom to promote creativity in the workplace, Jennifer guided us through an epic journey: • In the Cave of Creativity, we warmed up by … Continue reading…

In this column I share my favorite color conversion tool, what can happen when you create content without translation in mind, a Seth Godin book I recently finished, song recommendations based on what I’ve been listening to when I’m doing graphics work, and more. But first, let’s talk membership. I, and fellow NEO STC members … Continue reading…